Yellowjackets claim gold in inaugural tournament

Choctaw High School is working to build a soccer legacy in eastern Oklahoma County.
Last year Eric Jenkins stepped in as interim head coach, and he’s now in his first official year at the helm of Choctaw soccer.
With the same “G.O.L.D. Standard” adopted throughout CHS athletics, the Jackets are looking to build a competitive program and lasting legacy.
With a 1-0 win over Mount Saint Mary Saturday the Yellowjakcets showed they’re on the right track by claiming the inaugural Choctaw Cup.
Choctaw opened the tournament against neighboring Class 6A rival Midwest City. The Jackets opened in style with a dominant 4-1 win over the Bombers.
Fueled by a hat trick from Edo Manini, CHS downed the Bombers for the second time this season.
After that Choctaw edged out two competitive squads to claim the gold.
CHS advanced to face Harding in the semi-final, and the Jackets pulled out the 1-0 win thanks to a score by Percy Dukes off of a set piece.
In the final Choctaw capitalized on a goal by Donovan Hosford nearly 11 minutes into the second to take a 1-0 lead, and then it was a defensive fight to claim the cup.
“Our second game was good match against a pretty good little team in Harding, and then the final was a lot like that. Both real defensive matchups,” explained Jenkins.
“We set this thing up in the fall, and got some good teams to come out here. Competition was good, and we had some close games. It’s cool to be able to put on this tournament and come away winning the thing. We’re working on building a legacy, and it’s cool to win this first one so we can build on it in the future.”
CHS went into the weekend tourney with a 2-2 overall record after opening the season with shutouts over Midwest City, 4-0, and Kingfisher, 2-0, and a pair of dropped games against Shawnee, 3-1, and Moore, 4-0.
With the win over Mount St. Mary the Jackets improved to 5-2 on the year, and are focused on a challenging run through competitive district play.
Class 6A District 1 includes Choctaw, Norman, Edmond North, Edmond Memorial, Yukon, Capitol Hill, Putnam City West and Moore.
Jenkins says he has a talented roster that has really bought in to the team standards, and they are looking to make a push toward the postseason.
“We have about six or seven guys we rotate up top. We even have center-backs scoring. Jacob Dunning scored one on Kingfisher and Percy has been scoring. We’ve got some big guys that have been able to score with their big heads on set pieces,” said Jenkins. “So we have a lot of options to score.”

Other Choctaw Cup results
Choctaw took top honors Saturday, while Mount Saint Mary secured runner-up with their only loss being the 1-0 finale against the Jackets.
Eastern Oklahoma County squads Midwest City and Del City finished as third and fourth, while Star Spencer ended up winless.
Midwest City opened the tourney with a 3-2 win over Harding.
The Bombers were then beaten by Choctaw, 4-1.
Midwest City rebounded on the final day of play defeating district challenger Del City, 2-0.
The Del City Eagles opened the tourney with a solid matchup against Mount Saint Mary that ended in a shootout. After ending regulation tied 3-3 Mount Saint Mary would claim the win with PKs.
Before falling to the Bombers, the Eagles went on to defeat Star Spencer, 6-2.
Spencer went 0-3 in Choctaw Cup play giving up the 6-2 score to Del City, 10-0 shutout to Mount Saint Mary and a 7-0 decision to Harding.